Ancient Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 across premium platforms

A spine-tingling metaphysical suspense story from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primordial dread when unfamiliar people become tools in a satanic game. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of resilience and old world terror that will reshape the fear genre this scare season. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy thriller follows five unknowns who come to stuck in a secluded shelter under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman possessed by a two-thousand-year-old ancient fiend. Steel yourself to be seized by a big screen journey that integrates gut-punch terror with mythic lore, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the presences no longer originate outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most sinister facet of the group. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the intensity becomes a perpetual battle between moral forces.


In a wilderness-stricken no-man's-land, five campers find themselves marooned under the malevolent aura and haunting of a uncanny female presence. As the cast becomes submissive to resist her influence, disconnected and hunted by spirits inconceivable, they are compelled to face their emotional phantoms while the countdown harrowingly draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and partnerships implode, pushing each participant to question their identity and the principle of personal agency itself. The danger escalate with every tick, delivering a terror ride that weaves together otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to draw upon primitive panic, an force that existed before mankind, manipulating our weaknesses, and questioning a force that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the takeover begins, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving households around the globe can dive into this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has attracted over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this unforgettable descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to experience these chilling revelations about mankind.


For director insights, set experiences, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s major pivot: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, in parallel with tentpole growls

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from biblical myth all the way to canon extensions as well as focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned in tandem with deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners hold down the year with known properties, as SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives paired with mythic dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is propelled by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 genre season: entries, filmmaker-first projects, And A loaded Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The current scare slate crams in short order with a January bottleneck, and then carries through summer, and continuing into the holidays, balancing brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are leaning into tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that convert genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has solidified as the consistent tool in release plans, a category that can scale when it performs and still safeguard the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to top brass that cost-conscious genre plays can galvanize audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is space for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the industry, with planned clusters, a mix of familiar brands and novel angles, and a re-energized stance on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and digital services.

Executives say the genre now operates like a flex slot on the programming map. The genre can arrive on most weekends, generate a easy sell for marketing and shorts, and outstrip with audiences that appear on Thursday nights and hold through the second frame if the release works. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration shows confidence in that setup. The year starts with a crowded January window, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a fall cadence that extends to spooky season and past Halloween. The schedule also highlights the deeper integration of indie distributors and platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a tonal shift or a cast configuration that threads a upcoming film to a first wave. At the in tandem, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring material texture, physical gags and vivid settings. That alloy offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of comfort and discovery, which is how the films export.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a nostalgia-forward treatment without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on iconic art, character previews, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that becomes a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to revisit strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are marketed as marquee events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has shown that a visceral, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror charge that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in obsessive craft and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform windowing in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that elevates both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays nimble about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries near their drops and coalescing around drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the see here same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional cinema play for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, 2026 favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries forecast a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which align with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony imp source returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tone spread gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream check my blog 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that toys with the horror of a child’s fragile perceptions. Rating: rating pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a different family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.